PROCLAIMING JUSTICE TO THE NATIONS IN NATIONAL ALLIANCE TO HALT ANTISEMITIC HIGH SCHOOL CURRICULUM IN CALIFORNIA

PROCLAIMING JUSTICE TO THE NATIONS IN NATIONAL ALLIANCE TO HALT ANTISEMITIC HIGH SCHOOL CURRICULUM IN CALIFORNIA

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PROCLAIMING JUSTICE TO THE NATIONS IN NATIONAL ALLIANCE TO HALT ANTISEMITIC HIGH SCHOOL CURRICULUM IN CALIFORNIA

(New York, NY) --August 8, 2019 --Proclaiming Justice to The Nations (PJTN) has gone on record this week to join more than 80 top national pro-Israel civil rights, human rights, religious and education organizations in filing a formal letter to the California Department of Education demanding safeguards against political indoctrination and antisemitic content, such as that found existing in the new curriculum, being identified as AB 331.

Noted PJTN Founder and President, Laurie Cardoza-Moore, “The new Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum (ESMC) being proposed in California is being widely condemned by PJTN as part of an alliance of pro-Israel and Jewish organizations, California lawmakers and activists for its blatant antisemitic content and bias against Israel.”

“Our mutual communication to the California Dept. of Education states in part: ‘We agree that the ESMC must be drastically revised or completely re-written. We must ensure that its drafters will not be permitted to use the model curriculum to promote political, ethnic or religious enmity towards any group or weaponize high school students to take action based on enmity towards any race, religion, group or individual.’”

In the new curriculum in question, California High school students could be offered the potential of a full course of study that paints Israel and the Jewish people as part of a system of oppression and privilege that must be fought with resistance, according to reviewers in the coalition. Notes Cardoza-Moore: “With the click of page students are then offered a view of Arab-American studies that read like an excerpt from a Hamas propaganda pamphlet. Should we be surprised that a trio of academics on the advisory committee who created this model curriculum are vocal antisemites whose vitriolic anti-Israel positions, hatred for the Jews and outspoken bias have been nationally well documented?”

Additional prepared materials for students include a study of the cultural influence of national figures such as Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib and Women’s March leader Linda Sarsour—all of whom are associated with antisemitic, anti-Israel rhetoric—and in the case of Omar and Tlaib—a push towards Congress to enact pro BDS legislation to punish Israel “Certainly these women should not be presented to students as cultural heroes to be emulated or role models who represent the values we cherish—it’s outrageous.”

Cardoza-Moore calls the content created for high school level students “trickle down hostility towards Israel. It would hold the threat of reaching American students at a time when antisemitism and violence against Jewish students on college campuses is skyrocketing. We are opposing the content as it exists in the attempt to assure neither California nor students across the nation are exposed to such bias and indoctrination.”

The proposed curriculum is currently going through public comment in California and is expected to go through revisions, followed by final approval next year by the state’s Board of Education.

“PJTN has been on the frontlines and in the headlines nationally on the textbook agenda for more than a decade, and we will be mobilizing forces in California to assure local legislative officials up to and including the office of Governor Gavin Newsom hear the registered concerns in opposition of AB 331. There is a total alliance speaking out with PJTN on this agenda with one voice: ‘This is nothing more than an attempt for fringe activists to highjack curriculum in California high schools in the service of radical goals.’ It will not happen on our watch.”

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Proclaiming Justice to The Nations

At PJTN, our members are the strengthening foundation and empowering, sustaining force of all that we do. Please consider joining us in our efforts to raise awareness, stand against Anti-Semitism in all forms and thereby strengthen advocacy for our Jewish brothers and sisters, and the beloved nation of Israel.